Misfit Studios scores again with another Expanded Profession, easily the best and brightest of their microsupplement lines. Ten new Edges and a Knowledge skill, all designed to allow a more enhanced customization of thieves.

A new Legendary Edge, Guild Master, is included...allowing you to begin forming your own thieves guild. Trap Sense allows you to subconsciously detect traps without actively searching for them, and the Trap Springer Edges grant Armor against traps you accidentally set off while trying to disarm them!

Well worth it, especially if you have a thief-like character in your fantasy game, for a much greater number of customization options, with only one Edge having a direct combat application (Rooftop Ruffian allowing you to fight and climb at the same time). So far, the Expanded Professions are Can't Miss Material.

War of the Dead Chapter One is the first leg of the War of the Dead campaign epic for Savage Worlds by Daring Entertainment.

To be clear: Chapter One is actually 13 adventures, of which there will ultimately be 52 (not counting one sheets, which Daring has begun to release). It is a modern setting, set during a zombie outbreak, and you can buy them in bits or you can buy all of Chapter One as a package.

I'm going to save you the trouble: Like Savage Worlds and zombies? Go buy the bundle. I'll even link to it for you.

WARNING: Though I will go as light as I can on spoilers, as I always do with adventures, it is virtually impossible to do a review of substance and also go spoiler free. If you are going to be a player in War of the Dead, do yourself a favor and stay away.

SERIOUSLY.

HERE BE SPOILERS.

WEEK 1 TO 3

The PDF is layered, searchable and has a table of contents, and is copy and paste enabled. The book actually begins with important setting notes before getting into adventures. The War of the Dead is specifically inspired by the works of George Romero and Robert Kirkman, so that is the flavor of zombie horror you can expect.

The character types available are pretty much anything in a "normal" modern setting, though handy character advice is offered for you, in common archetypes and how they might be affected in the new world.

A new Benny rule is provided called Heroic Determination, which allows a PC to spend a benny and get Combat Edge for free for one round.

Four new Hindrances are present (three of which having a Major/Minor scale), such as Responsibility to Others and Guilt. A new Scavenger edge is present as well, which provides a bonus for finding food, supplies and shelter.

Several Edges are removed (relating to Powers), and some useful Knowledge skills are mentioned, along with their uses.

Some character advancement tips beyond Fighting and Shooting are also offered, with a general emphasis on using more than using advancement to boost combat abilities.

The GM section provides the "rules" of the zombies...such as how they will not stop coming unless their brain is destroyed, and clarifies that they neither have superhuman strength or senses. The rules also cover the effects of the enviroment and temperature on the undead, with cold causing them to freeze up and dry climates speeding up decomposition.

Virtually everyone is susceptible to infection from a zombie's bite...however, there are odd individuals who are not. This is determined by the GM and not the players, so they can't just, say, take an Edge.

There are also guidelines for stopping infection by severing limbs, with the horrific possibility of that STILL not working.

There is a "random headshot rule", and it is recommended that PCs not be allowed to call headshots until the effects of a headshot have been witnessed first hand.

Tips are also given for the use of the Survival and Tracking skills in relation to the game world.

There is lots of useful setting info here for the GM about incorporating NPCs (and Savage Worlds is system VERY well suited for a "group of survivors" type game).

Week One begins aboard the cruise ship Pinnacle (the first of many easter eggs), setting off on its maiden voyage with 3,000 people on board. In the first act, that night at sea, a Texas oilman takes ill after speaking with the PCs and is taken to the infirmary. Once he savagely attacks his wife and anyone else in the infirmary, the cruise ship turns into a cruise ship from Hell.

In Act two, the Head of Security Jason Kirkman starts taking control of the situation, and the PCs are sent to their rooms...where they soon hear cries for help from a nearby cabin, leading to another zombie encounter.

This is all meant to bring the PCs to the attention of the Head of Security, ensuring that they are central figures in the ensuing chaos. The PCs get to witness a power struggle between Kirkman, Ship's Captain Romero and the ship's owner Mr. Forthington, hinting that things are about to get even uglier. Week one should conclude with Kirkman and the PCs on a ship rapidly going to Hell.

While things are going south here, they are also going crazy out in the world...and the cell networks are clogged up, cutting the PCs communications options down.

Week One is a good start, designed to familiarize the PCs with the situation before a fairly rapid (but not TOO fast) descent into anarchy, and they are cut off from the outside world, completely,

Week 2 begins with a grisly scene of panicked passengers being attacked by the undead, with the crowd actively getting in the way if the PCs try to stop the undead.

Act two gets crazy ugly as a paramilitary team has attacked the ship out of nowhere, with the PCs stumbling into a fight between them and zombies. The immediate assumption is liable to be that they are involved with the zombies, but far from it: They are on the boat for other reasons altogether, a very nice touch as it already makes the world feel "bigger", in that not everything is tied directly into either the PCs or the zombies, but still has relevance.

In Week 3, the ship has been crippled and everything is going to Hell quickly. The adventure opens with a big set piece just designed for Savage Worlds goodness, with the PCs, Kirkman and the remaining soldiers getting to fight 28 zombies.

From there, we get to the first in what becomes a very cool recurring theme in the campaign: Encounter charts keyed to card draws. Draw a card for every PC and play through the encounters. Some very awesome encounters are present: A girl who has been bitten by her zombie mom, a man who has snapped and murdered his family and an entire deck that is completely overran by zombies being among my favorite. This all builds the paramilitary subplot to a head as we find out precisely why they are on board.

In Act Two, things calm down for the first time, as the known survivors gather together and assess the damage. An homage to the crazy religious lady from The Mist begins rattling the people, and a new encounter chart is used featuring incidents with the survivors, such as a possible suspicious interaction with the paramilitary guys, a random zombie busting in and a depressed man cutting his own throat in the room.

Week three ends with a fairly railroady beatdown of the PCs, Kirkman and the armed soldier for plot purposes...I would recommend just giving everyone a benny and moving on. I imagine they'll be okay enough with that. (Obviously, if you are wrapping up the session there, give it to them at the beginning of the next, just to be nice...they can use it.)

In fact, there are a few "cinematic moments" that kick in for the advancement of the plot...for me, at least, rather than ditching these I would just give out bennies any time the narrative took over, 'cause it is INCREDIBLY likely that the PCs will need all that they can get.

After the Week 3 section, the rest of the first book is filled with stats of the various Chapter One zombies: Shamblers, Sprinters, Newborns and Generals. Finally, all of the stats for the remaining NPCs in Chapter One, in order of appearance no less, are presented.

I really love that last bit of organization as, among other things, it lets you know that the author's not just making it all up as he goes along, since this was originally released weekly.

Overall, a very strong start to the campaign series.

WEEK 4

Week 4 begins with the big standoff with the dingbat zealot, and has one of the PC's allies flipping on them so that he can protect his family from the mob. She is convinced that the zombies only want the "sinners", but there are dead inside of the auditorium with the survivors that will help flip things on its ear.

This provides the PCs and their allies a chance to make their escape, where they discover that a) a Coast Guard ship is coming and b) their paramilitary buddies have wired the Pinnacle to explode and are not sticking around, leading to one more betrayal.

Of course, the Coast Guard ship is full of zombies, and is on a collision course with the Pinnacle.

This Week ends what is really the first Act or so of Chapter One, as the PCs and any surviving allies manage to escape the cruise ship...only to be stranded at see for two weeks.

The saga of the cruise ship Pinnacle is a great start to the War of the Dead, with a couple of early "human" breaks in the action...and I love the Encounter Charts being keyed to the card draws. I've just always dug stuff like that...I seriously love random charts, and making sense of the results.

WEEK 5

In Week 5, after two weeks at sea (thanks to a hurricane and their boat being damaged), the PCs make landfall for the first time since the game began. The first warning that something Just Isn't Right should be that the communications grid is largely dead. They make landfall at a marina, that just confirms that the whole zombie outbreak is a much larger phenomena (if the Coast Guard ship didn't clue them in, of course).

This Week also provides their first contact with NPCs after the ship, and is the first Week to focus primarily on a more human problem, rather than a zombie problem, with rampaging bikers. This one also has a plot driven kidnap scenario that is required to set up the next Week. A little railroady, yes, but if they complain too much, give 'em two bennies this time.

The whole tone is a good change of pace after the crushing saga of the Pinnacle. I do think that the second forced abduction in five adventures was probably spaced too close together, but I also think that a group buying into the "game" won't mind TOO much, especially with a benny reward.

WEEK 6

Hopefully the PCs made nice with the elderly couple from Week 5, because they are being used as leverage by the bikers to force the PCs into working for them. The PCs get to be bait, drawing zombies away as the bikers raid a town for supplies.

This provides another cool encounter chart, including an opportunity to stock up on weapons, and two encounters featuring low flying aircraft...one of which is armed and doesn't see the PCs(!).

The PCs also get an RV in this adventure, which his a model in the Paper Dead supplement, complete with removeable roof so that you can see inside AND "zombie proof gear" to affix to the outside!

The raid allows the PCs the chance to escape...but it'll surely mean taking on the bikers.

The PCs also catch a break from a radio broadcast...directing them to a Rescue Station in Jacksonville.

The Encounters charts are always awesome, so any chance to bust those out are great. The PCs get a chance to not be whipping boys, and get a cool ride. And yes, in the Zombie Apocalypse genre, RVs are a cool ride.

WEEK 7

Now the PCs get a broader look at how the world has gone to pot in just a couple of weeks. Another encounter chart is provided, this time with road specific encounters such as mid-road ambushes, spooked birds, a life threatening flat tire and the possible return of the biker gang the PCs just escaped from!

The RV Plot Device dies, setting up the PCs to meet a group of survivors, including a little girl destined to play a very important role in the overall arc of the story. It's best to take advantage of the calmed down atmosphere at the moment, to make it all have a little more impact when the church the survivors are holed up in comes under attack from the biker gang while a...creepy...zombie outbreak occurs inside the church.

Things descend into an appropriately chaotic mess again, with zombie hordes, bikers and a unique new breed of zombie that will...unsettle some folks.

The first time I saw "zombie newborn" was in the Dawn of the Dead remake...which came out a few months after my first son was born, after a tense delivery...I nearly walked out of the movie theatre, but I think I was overly sensitive at the time. I don't think it'll bother me as much here, and one cool bit is that one of the random encounters in the previous Week can foreshadow this.

WEEK 8

Week 8 serves, ultimately, to explain just what happened to the government as the group has their first formal encounter with the military, upon arriving in Jacksonville. Before that happens, the survivors of the church are threatened with a huge internal conflict that the PCs get to take sides in.

The little girl mentioned in Week 7 is at the center of all of this controversy, as she seems to be infected, but has no wounds or the like. This is a huge point of contention for the survivors, some of who are afraid they are endangering everyone by keeping her around.

One gripe with this scenario is that twice the girl in question is placed in a horrible, life threatening situation...but has plot immunity (as she is integral to later chapters). I don't mind the plot immunity, but two life threatening situations in this adventure for someone who is in no danger seems...excessive.

WEEK 9

Week 9 has the PCs and some military in the ruins of Jacksonville, trying to find medicine for the girl...and begins with three encounters to be spread out, featuring opportunities to aid people in awful situations, with guilt effects if they choose not to.

More crazy fun from random Encounter Charts is included, this time focusing on crazy, chaotic encounters in a city in flames. They can get attacked by feral dogs, rescue a woman trapped in her car, get shot at and have to deal with an exploding gas main.

If they make it past the zombies and a gun weilding raiding party, they get to return to camp to find out that tensions at home base have completely erupted, resulting in the PCs having to get the Hell out of dodge with whatever allies they have left.

This is a nice "out of the frying pan, into the fire" adventure, and after two Weeks with the military, they are surprisingly not revealed to be evil, incompetent or traitors...just guys out of their depth a bit.

WEEK 10

Week 10 provides a huge, and much needed, change of pace: The PCs find an actual community of survivors...and pretty much this whole Week is decompressing, acclimating and so on. Not a ton of action going on in this Week, just a lot of slow build and plot development.

For some groups, this is might be too "slow". It is definitely not what you expect from a Savage Worlds adventure, but I submit that this is a good thing.

WEEK 11

Another week of lite-action/heavy-roleplaying as the town's Mayor is ordering the military contingent that the players found while on patrol to leave, due to them being a drain on resources. This is setting up a large fracture among the survivors, as some (including possibly the PCs) are sure to be on the side of the military, but the father of the young girl who may be infected is far more concerned with utilizing the resources of the town to help his daughter.

WEEK 12

Week 12 begins ratcheting the action back up for the finale, as the PCs find out that the Living Dead have homed in on settlement, and the town has about a day's notice of their approach. This leads to a supply run at a nearby town...and turns into a race against time as the young girl has gone missing.

This leads to a crucial choice for the PCs: They can help defend the town against the undead, which breaks into the mass combat rules...or they can abandon the town to try to rescue the girl, and unearth the secrets that the town has been hiding in the process.

WEEK 13

The adventure begins with a "surrender or die" scenario, which probably means that the PCs will be abducted for the third time since the plot began. However, some very important information is conveyed here, including the possible origin of the virus that creates zombies, as well as the reason the little girl is so important: She has been infected with the virus, and her body has been fighting off the virus ever since.

This all builds to one more apocalyptic turn of events, putting the PCs back on the road once more, and setting the stage for Chapter Two.

The WEEK 13 book ends with some teasers about what is coming in the future, as some of the past will come back to haunt the PCs.

CONCLUSION

$20 for 13 adventures and the beginning of an incredibly ambitious campaign for Savage Worlds. It definitely falls closer to the Evernight "scripted campaign" territory than it does the now-famous "Plot Point" campaigns...not saying that's a bad thing, just saying.

The author plays to the strengths of Savage Worlds throughout Chapter One, as it is one of the few systems that could pull off large set pieces with hordes of zombies and a slew of NPC allies and not really slow down. The cruise ship is strong start, forcing a clausterphobic feel right off the bat. Chapter Two is supposed to begin releasing soon, but in the meantime Daring Entertainment has begun releasing War of the Dead One Sheets, as well as optional rules inspired by FATE.

While I don't hesitate to give this a strong recommendation, I do note that there are a couple of places where the plot hammer does come down awfully heavily. There will be some groups that will chaffe at this. I think my usual group would roll with the punches, especially if I tossed them an extra benny or two for their troubles...as they can usually use them in games where the odds are LESS stacked against them, so they'd love me for them here. I think three forced kidnappings/surrenders/captures in the first Chapter was probably pushing it.

There are some pieces that are very obvious homages to various films and stories, but I think they are clearly meant to be homages and most folks will get that. The "card draw" random encounter charts absolutely rule it, though, and if I ever start writing Savage Worlds adventures, I will shamelessly steal the concept and incorporate it as often as I can because I absolutely love random tables.

Highly recommended for some Savage Worlds/zombie killing fun. I wish to Hell I'd had this a year ago when I interrupted our Savage Worlds group to try to go back to All Flesh Must Be Eaten. We wouldn't have bothered.

The third Monster Brief by Misfit Studios produces four new dragons for Savage Worlds!

The first entry is the Arcane Dragon and it is absolutely scary. In addition to being big and mean, it has Power Points, knows spells and can cast the Dispel power at will. They don't seem to be overtly good or evil, preferring to be left to their own devices to study.

Mock dragons (that's Smoke Dragon to you) are tiny, smoke spewing dragons not much larger than a housecat. Back in the day playing D&D, I had a friend who played a solo Mage, and I would totally have stuck him with a Mock Dragon. They're perfect for that sort of role in a game.

The Sand Dragon looks a whole lot like one of the Metallic dragons from D&D...Brass? Copper? I don't recall...regardless, the Sand dragon is obsessed with collecting magic (for some reason), and does not fly, instead preferring to burrow in the desert.

Finally, the Viper Dragon is another flightless dragon and is barely more than an animal in intelligence...it doesn't come across particularly malevolent, but is still a definite adversary due to its predatory nature.

I'm kind of surprised at the lack of "evil" dragons in this. The closest seems to be the Viper Dragon, with the Sand Dragon also seemingly capable of filling an antagonistic role if need be. The Mock Dragon makes for an awesome companion in a game, while the Arcane Dragon just wants to be left alone.

The variations are nice, but the product isn't brimming with plot hooks for your Savage Worlds game...however, the Mock Dragon and the four write-ups as examples in changing up dragons within the Savage Worlds rules set are still very cool.

The Eugenics Brigade are the counter balance to the Vigilance Force. In fact, they are the reason Vigilance Force was formed, and they are far more useful because villains tend to be far more useful for a GM than heroes do.

One of my gripes from Vigilance Force is present here as well, as several characters don't get any art, though there seems to be more individual art here than there was in Vigilance Force.

The first villain we get is a scantily-clad, nazi slutbomb stereotype (though she is a ballerina and not a dominatrix) named Charismatic, and thankfully she gets a picture. She has a twin sister with Luck Control powers to complete the ensemble.

Fireproof is the Nazi answer to the fiery hero Old Glory, and War Hound plays the Sabretooth to Marauder's Wolverine.

The two that impress me the most are Uberkrieger and Ubermensch, the Super Soldier and the Super Man. Underkrieger is just UGLY, with a large rifle and metallic jaws, while Ubermensch is, thankfully, not nearly as versatile as the real Superman.

There are other villains, as well as some cannon fodder such as soldier in jetpacks, mystics and the rejects from the Eugenics program.

For $2 this offers much more bang for its back than its predecessor, due to villains simply being more useful, as noted above. Definite recommendation.

Vigilance Force: Heroes of WWII is the first supplement for ICONS by Vigilance Press.

Here's the thing about ICONS: I want to like it, I really do. The whole package looks very charming. The Marvel FASERIP influence is great. The writing is just...I feel like too much got glossed over with a "Hey, if you don't like a rule, change it, champ!" approach. And in actual play, I didn't really feel like it held up.

Why am I saying all of this? Because there is some cool third party stuff coming out for ICONS, like ION Guard. Vigilance Force is the first book establishing a World War II setting for ICONS, and it is not all happy, Silver Age fun like the ICONS core leans towards. Instead, it comes across fairly hard nosed, with some very lovely, gritty art by Jon Gibbons (supplemented by art by Dan Houser which is nice, but a sharp contrast).

For $2, you get 14 pages of setting and superheroes, designed to be used as PCs for a WWII game. They do provide the Team Qualities, Challenges and Resources for those who wish to use the team rules in the ICONS rulebook.

There are some very cool characters here, my favorite being Freight Train, a super speed brick (not a combo you usually see outside of Superman). Agent Liberator is a lot like an amalgam of Captain America and The Comedian (from the Watchman) and Marauder sure seems heavily inspired by (though far from ripped off of, don't get me wrong) Wolverine.

In fact, there are very cool influences all over Vigilance Force that are nice homages and not just "serial numbers filed off".

The downsides? Unless I am just missing it, Captain Miracle has no backstory. Dan Houser contributes one piece, and it's fine, but it sticks out like a sore thumb next to Jon Gibbons. Not calling either style better than the other, just saying they clash...bad. I would have liked individual pics, instead of trying to figure out who was who in the group shot, personally. Finally, I don't run games with pregens, so for a guy like me, a team of superHEROES isn't incredibly useful. Not useLESS, just not the most useful. That said, for $2, there is some great inspiration in here.

I'd jump all over a BASH version, personally.

The second Monster Brief by Misfit Studios takes a different tack: Rather than focusing on one monster, like the Goblin, we get some dungeon classics.

The Carnivorous Cube: A giant, man-eating gelatin cube? Ridiculous...that'll never fly. Frankly, it's just as scary as you remember.

Mad Mouthers: Mad Mouthers are slightly less iconic than the inspiration for the Carnivorous Cube...in fact, Mad Mouthers are one of the few quasi-classics I don't think I ever used. I've gotta compare the entries for this and its D&D inspiration...'cause this is cooler than I remember.

A minotaur remix is up next, designed to focus on the minotaur in the labyrinth, taking them back to their roots. FRIGHTENING if it is allowed to get a full on charge going.

Troglodytes: My biggest memory of troglodytes are their appearance in one of the D&D arcade games, where they still emitted the musky ordery stuff (though I think it was more like poison in that game, I think).

All told, not as cool as the expanded professions, or even quite as cool as the Goblin brief, but still very nice to see some renamed D&D classics slink into Savage Worlds.

Another in Misfit Studios' line of microsupplements, we get 5 magic blades. The introduction informs us that each Blade's powers should be hidden, and gives guidelines on researching them...complete with a table to roll on (there is a unique one for each blade), detailing just how much information the researcher finds. A Critical Failure means that they get it ALL wrong. This is a great concept, but stumbles just a bit in execution: If they players roll it, they will know they got a Critical Failure, and will suspect something. If the GM rolls it, they essentially lose the right to use a benny to modify the roll, which some could construe as unfair. Other than that, I love it...just gotta work that part out.

Bloodletter: The first item is an intelligent longsword that actually makes those that hold it less intelligent. Being an intelligent sword, it has a Smarts and Spirit die, as well as Skills and Goals, plus special powers. The mechanics are a little unclear, as it will try to drive Magic Users and the type that hold the blade insane...but it doesn't say how, as the only codified power of the blood is draining Power Points from those it harms. Cool concept, a little unclear on the mechanics.

Dagger of Piercing: Much as it says...this little dagger is the Ginsu of the fantasy world, though it does have limitations...

Deathsever Dagger: A dagger with cool extra bonuses against the Undead and essentially granting the Sweep Edge. However, they were designed for a VERY specific, hidden purpose.

Demonbane: Another unique blade, at first glance...but extra research can again reveal a very cool, hidden purpose.

Frostheart: This one is a bonafide artifact, with Power Points and everything. Conceptually, it's probably my least favorite of the five.

The first magic item collection from Misfit Studios for Savage Worlds is very cool for your $1.55...the plot hooks for the Demonbane and Death Severe Daggers are probably my favorite parts, honestly, and my only REAL complaint is that I'm not sure how the Bloodletter functions with its influencing the its wielder (potentially). Another fine entry.

The Good: FILLED with plot hooks, great character options and a robust system that brings the martial arts alive.

The Bad: Minor editing issues and a few more examples of adversaries would have been great.

Conclusion: One of the best new releases I have read all year, period.

For a full review, please visit: http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2010/09/tommys-take-on-wu-xing-ninja-crusade.html

In anticipation of my upcoming review of The War of the Dead, let's take a look at The Paper Dead, the first series of paper figures for The War of the Dead.

First off, the figures can be folded trifold or bifold...and for mounted figures, you can make little slits in the vehicle and figure to slide them on. The PDF is layered, so you can "turn off" figures that you don't need to print. That's not quite as cool as Precis Intermedia's customizable sets, but I don't know of anything in the industry that matches those.

The Paper Dead offers three pages of unique zombies of all sorts...page one offering 24 completelty unique shamblers, including priests, mechanics and grocery shoppers still pushing their carts.

The next page offers another 24 shamblers, with a couple in wheelchairs and an assortment of zombie kids, as well as zombies missing their legs.

The third page of zombies offers some very creepy variants meant to be teasers for upcoming adventures such as hulking Ragers, Sprinters, Generals and very creepy zombie newborns.

Six zombie swarm templates are offered, four small, one medium and one large, when you just wanna overlay a mess of zombies.

We then get an assortment of survivors, starting with janitors, street walkers, retirees, expectant mothers and double amputee war veterans.

The next batch offers a Shaun of the Dead tribbute, a goth chick with a chainsaw, a shotgun wielding preacher, a sheriff, biker gang leader and firefighter.

The next page is filled with "generic" types, such as bikers, militia, soldiers and special ops.

Various animals are included on the next page, from horses to feral dogs and guard dogs to ferrets(!)

Motorcycles and bicycles follow.

The next page features counters for cars and the like, and then we get a scale model RV...including extra bits you can add onto the RV for a "zombie plow" and to "zombie proof" the RV!

A series of bases and door markers are included, as are special status markers for the Savage Worlds effects.

This is one of the coolest figure flats sets I have ever seen. If you are running War of the Dead, or any zombie RPG using any kind of minis, I recommend this product highly.

This is an undead-themed monster mini supplement for the Pathfinder RPG. I don't play Pathfinder, but I am familiar with D&D 3/.5...that said, I luvs me some monster books, because a good concept can be translated to other games easily enough.

For $2.99, you get eight monsters over 14 pages

The first is a variation of a banshee, and I would feel silly using her just because of the name (bean chaointe).

The bloodknight is a cool vampire knight who can be compelled into one on one fights due to his twisted sense of honor.

Dark messengers are undead couriers who can ward off good or evil at will, presumably to make their jobs as deliverymen easier.

A lich tyrant is an awesome lich variant, being a king or noble who makes a dark pact to avoid death, rather than being a wizard who turns himself into a lich. They still have the phylactery vulnerability, but are a nice non-spellcasting variant on an old favorite.

Masque ghuls are shapeshifting ghuls who often pose as noblemen.

The Night Dragon is an undead dragon that spews acid and has a gaze that can rot his enemies away. Again, another very cool variant on an old favorite.

Rot giants are creepy undead giants with nearly impervious hides and the ability to devour devour the freshly dead and spew out animated skeletons.

Soul harvesters consume the souls of their prey and burn those souls off to power magic spells, or boost its attack rolls and damage.

Is it worth it? I would probably use half of these without hesitation, and the bean chaointe is the only thing I would seriously doubt myself on, though that has to do with the name and not the write-up...so I'd change the name or just give the one I used a proper name to avoid that.

Great stuff at a great price.

The Rite NPC Deck is a PDF file filled with printable NPC headshots with a generic "back" sheet for NPC notes, if you want to stat them out or the like.

Most of the art is good to great, with a heavy emphasis on fantasy (veering heavily into more animalistic types than human types).

49 images are provided, which means you're paying about 12 cents a head shot (approximately), which is more than fair. The downside is that you are more likely having to fit a character to the art, but I personally find that to be a fun challenge.

Very nice product, especially if you don't known an artist or have art skills yourself.

Like the Expanded Professions, the Monster Briefs are short PDFs at $1.55, taking a given subject matter and "blowing it up" a bit.

In this case, we get an expanded focus on Goblins, complete with a couple of variations. The product is a mild letdown from the awesomeness that is the Expanded Professions, but still very cool. First up, we get introduced to the Beast Wrangler, a goblin that trains various animals for chaos and violence. This entry is mostly hampered by a reference to giant rats from the Pulp GM's Toolkit, an earlier Savage Worlds product that is now a bit on the obscure side due to the push for the various Companions (though the Pulp Toolkit is still available).

Goblin Lords are actually kind of impressive...having enough going for them statistically to be a threat, especially to lower ranked characters, even before you realize that they are also going to be surrounded by a whole tribe.

Goblin Wolf Riders are fairly self explanatory, and include vargrs, which are like dire wolves but big and mean.

The Monster Brief concludes with Ragefur mushrooms, a very scary mushroom that can send goblins into a furious berserker rage before possibly killing them...and then it does BAD stuff to non Goblins that eat it.

You know, its just not quite as cool or as useful as the first Expanded Profession, but this first Monster Brief is still a very encouraging sign as to what could be coming down the pike.

Expanded Professions: The Druid

Holy smokes...now this is what I'm talking about. Misfit Studios officially tosses their hat into the Savage Worlds ring with a tiny supplement...of awesome. For $1.55 you can download a three page PDF that adds a Druid Professional Edge and then...expands it. What this product really is, is nine Edges starting with Druid and then allowing access to a number of special features and abilities,including a new Legendary Edge that allows the Druid to tap into the senses of all the animals in the surrounding area.

Yeah.

Another Edge piggybacks off of the Beast Master Edge and allows the Druid to impart cool abilities on their animal companion, or even boost the animal's stats. Yet another Edge allows the Druid to be powered by the land, complete with a table you can use to modify the Druid's power points with depending on where they are actually AT (a desert bumps the Druid's points down -4, while a jungle rockets them up a whopping +6, for instance).

Some people will say "too many edges" and "use what's already there"! I say "Holy crap, I wanna play a Druid, at least until some more of these come out...what's that? 'Champion' just came out? I need to pick that up..."

I am obviously very much a fan of this concept. The addition of more Edges (that have a reason for existing) can help dispel that notion that Savage Worlds "ends" at Legendary...and this supplement has a neat trick or two rolled into Edges that some might have tried to place into the Powers system.

If future releases hold up with this one...and I kinda hate Druids, so there you go...Misfit should have a bright future as a licensee.

The Good: Unkindness does provide a very interesting new villain, with a complete adventure AND twenty four additional plot seeds to use with the villain after the adventure is finished.

The Bad: If you are buying this for ICONS, the ICONS part of it feels like an afterthought. I know it is a lighter system than Hero is, but the ICONS support comes entirely in stat blocks. In parts where skills are discussed in the adventure, Hero Knowledge Skills are mentioned, but Specialties in ICONS are ignored, etc. The art is inconsistent as the cover art is...not great...but some of the interior art (especially the Raven King) looks wicked.

Conclusion: For a Hero adventure? Great buy. For an ICONS adventure? Eh, maybe, and that's the perspective I'm looking at this from.

Pros: Slasher Flick brought to full color. with tons of new bonus features including 100 pregens and a full "film".

Cons: No bookmarks, less than impressive table of contents and index.

Check out my review at: http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2010/09/tommys-take-on-slasher-flick-directors.html